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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22723405">Beleaguer</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShariDeschain/pseuds/ShariDeschain'>ShariDeschain</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Batdictionary [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Batman - All Media Types, Batman and Robin (Comics), Under the Red Hood</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Early Days, Gen, Mentions of drugs, jason is not ok</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 16:08:23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,717</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22723405</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShariDeschain/pseuds/ShariDeschain</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p><i>Beleaguer</i> (v) to exhaust with attacks; to pester or badger with persistence</p>
<p>Or, the one where Damian visits Jason in prison to play chess.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Jason Todd &amp; Damian Wayne</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Batdictionary [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/608704</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>271</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>COWT - Clash Of the Writing Titans/Chronicles Of Words and Trials</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Beleaguer</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The kid comes alone, and even in the state he's in, even after all the things he's seen in and out this place, Jason is decently confident that this is something that should not be allowed. There should have been someone - a security guard, a doctor, a janitor - to stop it. Someone willing to turn down the large bribe the kid must undoubtedly have brought along with his smug face and his short little person, someone willing to say ‘<em>sorry kid, the Elizabeth Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane is no place for children, go home</em>’. </p>
<p>But nobody did, of course. </p>
<p>Because this is Arkham.</p>
<p>The kid doesn’t say anything, walks straight up to the visitor table and sits compositely in his white chair, across the bulletproof glass. Up until now, Jason had only caught a few glimpses of him from time to time, he never had the opportunity or the reason to look at him straight in the face, to truly and really <em>look</em> at him.</p>
<p>He’s not surprised of what he sees. The boy is a miniature carbon copy of Bruce Wayne himself, all sharp edges and black shadows. The eyes, though. The eyes are all Talia’s. Unexpectedly, that's what hurts him the most.</p>
<p>“I’m Damian”, the kid says, clearly unnerved by Jason’s silence. He doesn’t add a last name, doesn't introduce himself as Al Ghul nor Wayne. It’s a very calculated move, and Jason has to laugh because this little thing in front of him can be what, seven, eight years old? And he’s playing with him like he thinks he can win. He can't help but admire the reckless bravado.</p>
<p>Jason stretches across the table, getting closer to the glass. The drugs have started to eat away at his brain by now, and things these days are either fuzzy or too bright, but this. Well, this looks like fun.</p>
<p>“Daddy wouldn’t be happy to know you’re here”, he sing-songs, a half indulgent half taunting smile on his lips. “He would give you a good spanking and send you to your room without supper, you know.”</p>
<p>A nerve on the kid’s forehead twitches and his eyes narrow as if he’s filing the offense away for a better time, but otherwise he remains undaunted.</p>
<p>“Wayne is dead, as I’m sure you’re aware.”</p>
<p>Jason’s studies the kid’s face, but there’s nothing else there, no regret, no sadness, no pain. And sure, the heir to both the Demon’s Head and the Batman has certainly been trained to keep his composure in any situation and to always show as little as possible about himself, but there are things you cannot hide, no matter how hard you try, and grief is one of those things.</p>
<p>No, the boy’s not mourning his father’s death. And that makes Jason almost like the kid.</p>
<p>“Ah, but the nest can’t be completely empty”, he says. “They would never let a little chick like you alone in the streets, would they? It could be dangerous.”</p>
<p>“If I am a bird, I am a carnivorous one”, the kid answers, still unfazed. “And the rats that are not here with you already, will soon be.”</p>
<p><em>Is the kid the new Robin?</em>, Jason wonders. It could be: the son of Talia would certainly be qualified for the job. But what about Drake? Has he already been discarded? Is he dead too? The average Robin's life expectancy has certainly shortened a lot, in that case. </p>
<p>And what about Dick, does he love new Robins now that he’s graduated to the cape and the cowl? Would he really make the same mistake his predecessor did and put the burden of a crazy war on a kid who can't understand it? Jason thought Dick was a little better than that. He thought Dick could understand.</p>
<p>“-d? Todd?”</p>
<p>The kid's voice is dry and petulant, like that of any child who's being ignored for too long. Jason focusses back on him, and finds him on the edge of his seat, unconsciously leaning towards him, and there’s something about his posture and the look on his face that tells him a familiar story about an only child who’s never got enough attention in his own home, and for this reason he now turns to strangers, looking for confirmation that he’s worth something, that his existence does have a meaning after all. </p>
<p>But perhaps he’s only projecting.</p>
<p>“I guess your brain is already fried”, the kid declares, clearly out of patience, as he stands up with such impetuousness the chair would dramatically fall back on the white linoleum, were it not already nailed to it. “My trip here has been a waste of time, like I imagined.”</p>
<p>The love for drama is difficult to place, both the Waynes and the Al Ghuls are very fond of it, Jason muses.</p>
<p>“And why are you here, kid?”, he asks, genuinely curious. “What did you think you and I were gonna do?”</p>
<p>“Play chess”, the kid answers right back, and for a moment Jason thinks he did not understand him correctly, but then Damian lifts up a linen bag, and inside there’s something that, by its shape and consistency, can only be a chessboard.</p>
<p>“Play chess”, he echoes, genuinely puzzled by the idea. For a moment he thinks it’s some kind of trap, that the kid’s just a diversion to distract him so that his partners can take him by surprise. But no, Dick would never allow it. And why should they attack him? He’s already in prison.</p>
<p>“Chess, yes”, the kid confirms in the meanwhile. “I'm having weekly matches with Elliot too.”</p>
<p>It takes Jason another moment to understand who Elliot is and what this means.</p>
<p>“You’re playing chess with Thomas Elliot?”, he repeats anyway, because it sounds just too crazy even for this place. “Why?”</p>
<p>A little shrug, calculated as everything else.</p>
<p>“I’m collecting informations.”</p>
<p>Of course.</p>
<p>“What a good little detective you are.”</p>
<p>Damian seems annoyed by that remark.</p>
<p>“It is my contribution to the active rehabilitation of the criminals that this honorable institution is sheltering for the good of our society.”</p>
<p><em>Hush is too dangerous to play game with</em>, Jason thinks. And then: <em>what a little shit.</em> </p>
<p>The absurdity of the whole situation makes him laugh again, but this time his own laughter makes him feel uneasy. Because he suddenly remembers he’s not the only one laughing in this place. Behind closed doors, in the back of the building, there are other laughters, other jokes. Familiar ones.</p>
<p>But this could be the paranoia talking. It’s one of the side-effects the doctor said he would start experiencing after the new dosage.</p>
<p>And yet.</p>
<p>What would happen to the kid if Hush decided to play back? What would happen if someone else decided to join the game? The way he remembers it, it’s all laughters and games until someone dies. He wonders what was Bruce’s last thought before <em>he</em> kicked the bucket, wonders who was it for. This brand new son? Alfred? Dick? But it doesn’t really matter now, does it? Same old, same old.</p>
<p>The ticking of a fingernail on the glass almost makes him jump. The kid’s looking at him again like he’s some weird specimen he wants to study, and for a moment that makes Jason angry. He’s not a madman, he doesn’t deserve to be here. What he was doing out there was the right thing: it wasn’t Batman’s kind of justice, but it was still justice. </p>
<p>He’d like to explain it to the kid, before he starts thinking that there’s only one way to do this, that everything that Bruce - or Dick, or whoever the fuck else decided to stand up as Gotham's champion - said had to be law, and everything else just wrong. Jason thought the same too, once upon a time.</p>
<p>He feels like burning. It’s easy to think, but when he tries to turn those thoughts into words things get too difficult. His tongue is cotton-candy, just like the inside of his brain.</p>
<p>“I can’t play with you now”, he manages to say. “Maybe another time, though.”</p>
<p>The kid doesn’t look convinced. <em>Of course not</em>, Jason thinks, feeling his rage welling up again. It’s probably too late already. He’s exactly like Bruce, the same eyes, the same sullen look. Jason already knows what he thinks of him because it’s what everyone else thinks. Well, who cares. Not him, that’s for sure. He doesn’t care about any of them.</p>
<p>But what would he do if the Joker was here in this room with them?, he asks himself. Protect the kid? Let him die? Red Hood is officially not a good guy, he has no responsibility here. Bruce's logic would dictate that he’d side with the Joker and let his own brother die, wouldn’t it? That’s what everybody would expect from him. </p>
<p>He tried to make them understand: kids should not be doing this.</p>
<p>“I’ll be back”, the kid announces, calling him back to reality once again.</p>
<p>“What?”</p>
<p>“I’ll be back. Next time make sure to be in shape for a chess game.”</p>
<p>Jason feels conflicted. He doesn’t want to be the kid’s pet project, doesn’t want to be asked question he’s already sure he will not like, doesn’t want to feel like this child is the only link to Bruce he has left. He doesn’t need any of that shit. And at the same time… well, this <em>does</em> look like fun.</p>
<p>“Of course”, he agrees. “If that’s what you want we can have a little family game night of our own.”</p>
<p>The kid freezes, and that’s how Jason knows the shot went through. He smiles at him, and Damian narrows his eyes again like these are all things one day Jason’s will have to pay for. But right now he can't retaliate, can’t say he considers Jason less than dirt under his elegant italian shoes, not if he wants to continue this little experiment of his, and Jason knows it.</p>
<p>So he grins and waves his hand at him as the kid straightens his shoulders up and marches right through the security door.</p>
<p>“See ya, baby brother”, he shouts at his back, and when Damian doesn’t answer him he laughs, and then he laughs, and he laughs and he laughs until they come to take him away.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Some little explanation: in Streets of Gotham Damian visits Thomas Elliot (Hush) in prison. Elliot looks just like Bruce and was impersonating him after Bruce’s ‘death’ in Final Crisis. While Damian claims to go visit (and play chess with) him because he likes to study his surrounding, Hush himself says that in reality he’s looking for connections with his father and his mission - and of course he’s right, since Damian does this constantly with almost everyone else (this is very early Dick&amp;Damian era). So I thought: why not go visit Jason too? </p>
<p>Of course I had to ignore some canon comics like Battle for the Cowl, but tbh who cares, that shit is completely ooc anyway.<br/> </p>
<p>Written for the COWT #10 @ landedifandom, prompt ‘Big Brother Instinct’</p></blockquote></div></div>
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